Tamara Noel Fitzgerald, MD, PhD

My academic interest is global pediatric surgery.  There are millions of children worldwide who do not have access to safe surgery for congenital anomalies and acquired conditions.  As a result, many children in low-middle income countries live with chronic disability or die before they can access surgical care.  In many cultures, congenital problems may also lead to social isolation or catastrophic health expenditure for families.

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have just a handful of qualified surgeons.  For example, in Uganda, the country where I have most frequently worked, there are 4 general pediatric surgeons for a country of 39 million people.  This would be the equivalent of 32 pediatric surgeons serving the entire United States.  There are neighboring countries with no pediatric surgeons.

My work focuses on surgical capacity building - empowering and working with local surgeons in low-middle income countries to increase numbers of surgical providers, improve quality and increase surgical support services such as intensive care and anesthesia services.  I have several ongoing projects regarding the burden of surgical disease for patients and their families in low-middle income countries, surgical training and capacity building.